State report: Oneida Nation earned $400 million by not paying taxes

The Oneida Indian Nation turned a profit of more than $115 million last year, according to an economist's report commissioned by New York.

Even if the nation had paid all taxes state officials say it should, the report indicates, the nation still would have turned a profit of at least $50 million.

By the nation not paying those taxes since 1995, state and local governments have missed out on about $400 million -- money that has gone straight to the nation's bottom line, the report indicates.

"That's why they could build Turning Stone (Resort and Casino), which cost them about $1 billion, and sell bonds of only $300 million because of all this money that's raining down on their heads from all these subsidies," said the author of the study, Gregg Jarrell, an economics and finance professor at the University of Rochester's Simon business school.

For more on the report, see Glenn Coin's story in Saturday's edition of The Post-Standard